Relay is raising with a valuation cap of $3 million with no discount. For a company that operates in an industry with a TAM of $506 billion and has a solid product, this appears to be a low valuation. If Relay can scale its business up to nationwide coverage, this valuation could continue to rise steadily. As a result, Relay’s price score is its highest across all five metrics.

Relay operates within the home services market, which is a $506 billion dollar industry, within the United States. According to the same source, there are approximately 511,345,000 home services jobs each year. Because Relay’s product is able to be downloaded and used anywhere, it could have a smooth path to expanding its business to encompass a large portion of the U.S.

According to the company itself, it sees its Serviceable Available Market (SAM) allowing for a revenue of up to $500 million. That’s not an exceedingly high amount, and the company could run out of room for growth after scaling to cover the U.S. Balancing the large home services market against the portion of the market that Relay can realistically capture, the company’s market score is middle of the road.

Relay was founded by Justin Clegg. Clegg previously worked at Adobe and Oracle as a product marketer. He also has experience from working at Intel as a Product Marketing Manager, where he helped launch the Intel Core M. Clegg’s history of working at top tech companies and his experience coming from a marketing perspective will be valuable to growing a business from the early stages. Thus, Relay’s team score is above average.

Relay’s app is an all-in-one platform that allows contractors and clients to have quick and easy communication. By combining all of the functionality of messaging, scheduling, video sharing, payment, reviews, and analytics, Relay has positioned itself as the premier customer service app for the home services market. Apps like Thumbtack and Podium operate in a similar space, but don’t have nearly as many functions available on their platforms. Relay looks capable of growing to a point where it could occupy most of the market that these more specific platforms currently have. However, it’s hard to defend an app. If Relay’s model as an all-in-one platform shows traction, competitors may arise with similar business models. While the company has an early mover advantage at this time, there’s no guarantee that it will be able to maintain that advantage. Thus, Relay’s differentiators score is only slightly above average.

Relay is a new company and has little financial information to base an informed decision on. With that being said, there are certain indicators that point towards success for the growing company. Relay has received $300,000 from three investors, which has allowed the company to create its mobile app and get it listed on iOS and Android devices. The fact that multiple VC’s have seen potential in Relay’s business model does bode well for the company. 

Relay has also hosted an early beta, which resulted in 20 companies signing Letters of Intent (LOIs) and five more joining as paying customers. However, these LOIs are likely not binding and may not result in any future business. Due to the lack of financial data for the company and its limited beta, Relay’s performance score is its lowest across all five metrics.

As with any company in its extreme early days, there is room for issues to arise in the future. Relay’s app is available on multiple mobile platforms, but poor early performance and widespread bugs at launch could easily turn away potential business partners. With such a small executive team, any shakeups to the structure of the company could also spell disaster for Relay.

Another potential problem for Relay is its location. It’s a Utah-based company, which (assuming it begins its operation close to home) limits the available market. According to Home Advisor, the market size for home services in Utah is $4.6 billion – a far cry from the $506 billion TAM in the United States at large. Additionally, the lack of financial data for the company creates uncertainty and risk surrounding the business’s operating margins and potential profitability.

Relay has shown that its platform can generate traction. Its initial beta led to 20 companies signing LOI’s and five more coming on board for Relay’s service. The new company has already seen $300,000 in funding, including three individual investors that have allowed the business to create and list an app on iOS and Android devices. 

The groundwork for a successful future has been put down. With a business model that theoretically should be easily scaled across the country, a solid marketing campaign could propel Relay to massive profitability.

Relay’s business model centers around making the customer service experience for the home services market easier for both the contractor and the client. The application has been created and is already available for download. Relay already has five paying clients with 20 more who have expressed interest. With $300k in total raised capital, Relay has VC backing that indicates a positive future.

The company is still in its infancy and has no financial data to base an informed decision on. An issue with its platform or bad reviews from users could slow Relay’s growth down precipitously – but both of these possibilities are nothing more than conjecture. With Relay’s current track record, it seems like a company well-positioned to become profitable in the future. Due to all these factors, Relay has been given a Deal to Watch rating.  

For questions regarding the KingsCrowd staff pick or ratings for this company, please reach out to support@kingscrowd.com.

Analysis written by Ethan Thomas.